The drum is the soul of music, which directs the rhythm of a melody by means of its drumbeat. There are several kinds of drums, but the snare drum in particular provides instrumental color and dynamic power to, and augments the range of, rhythmic and percussive effects.
The snare drum is a musical instrument having two drumheads, an upper-side or batter-side head, and a lower-side or snare-side head. These two drumheads are separated by a shallow cylinder, and acoustically reactive wires, i.e., snare wires, are tensioned across the snare-side head to facilitate a continuous drum roll when one strikes the batter-side head with drumsticks.
In general, the drumheads are formed from a variety of materials or combinations of materials. For example, one can form the heads from animal skin, a combination of skin and fabric, or a polyethylene terephthalate resin marketed under the trade name MYLAR.TM.. In a snare drum, the batter-side head is typically formed of a thick layer of material to withstand the drumstick impacts. The snare-side head is typically formed of a thinner layer of material such that the vibration of the batter-side head causes the snare-side head to vibrate. This vibration results in vibratory interaction of the snare-side head and the snare wires, and this vibratory interaction develops the sharp, snappy sounds that differentiate the traditional snare-drum sounds from the deeper "booming" tone of a bass drum, tympanum, or tom-tom.
Drumheads formed of multiple materials, multiple layers of material and multiple thicknesses of material are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,809,050, 3,250,169, 4,254,685, 4,798,121, and 4,809,582, all of which are incorporated by reference. U.S. Pat. No. 1,809,050 discloses a means of maintaining the necessary taughtness of a skin snare-side drumhead in moist environments by securing a layer of fabric to the layer of skin. The combined thickness of the skin and fabric is thin enough to provide the sharp tone characteristic of the traditional snare drum when subjected to the vibrations of the snare strings. U.S. Pat. No. 3,250,169 discloses a drumhead muffler for muffling the drumhead sound. Specifically, a strip of muffling material is stretched across the drumhead and secured relative to the drumhead by a retaining ring. U.S. Pat. No. 4,254,685 discloses a compound-membrane drumhead for momentarily increasing the pitch of a drum when struck a sharp blow by drumstick while decreasing the decay time of the fundamental tone or mode. U.S. Pat. No. 4,254,685 discloses a flexible, stretch-resistant drumhead membrane having a ring-like section secured to one surface of the drumhead. The ring-like section divides the drumhead into an inner center portion having a first thickness for striking with drumsticks and an outer annular portion of increased thickness extending from the center portion to the outer edge of the drumhead. U.S. Pat. No. 4,798,121 discloses a drumhead that provides a sharp, clear impact sound and an improved resistance to drumstick damage. The drumhead includes an overlay formed of two sheets or lamina of woven synthetic plastic fibers coated with a synthetic plastic material. The two sheets are cross-laminated together and secured to the upper surface of a central region of a plastic-film drumhead. U.S. Pat. No. 4,809,582 discloses a drumhead that generates a changed tonality and timbre of drumbeat. The drumhead includes an inner circular drumhead surface formed of a single layer of material and surrounded by an outer annular surface formed of a double layer of material. The vibrational weave of a drumbeat on the inner circular surface is concentrated by the small inner surface before being absorbed by the outer annular surface.
Great Britain Patent No. GB 2 113 888 A disclosed a multiple-layer drumhead that is formed of two overlapping equal-thickness synthetic layers. An air pocket is formed between the layers and permits vibrations in each layer.
Another drumhead is formed by adhering mirror-finish polyethylene terephthalate rings manufactured by Tonga.TM., Stamford, Conn., USA to an outer edge of a drumhead surface using a pressure sensitive adhesive to create a different tone and pitch in a drum.
Thus, while drumheads formed of multiple materials, multiple layers of material, and multiple thicknesses are known in the art, such knowledge has not been applied to snare drums. In particular, such knowledge has not been applied to modify the traditional sharp tone provided by the snare drum.
The above described practices and features of the prior art. Excessive thickness in the snare-side head renders the instrument unable to generate sharp tones; especially those produced by vibration of the snare wires. Snare-side drumheads need sufficient thinness to produce the traditional sharp tones characteristic of the snare drum, but tone variation from the traditional sharp tone of the snare drum is a desirable option for many drummers and has application in Field and Marching percussion, "Hip Hop," and "Jungle" music genres for example. Other applications in which a variation from the snare drum's traditional sharp tone are desirable include both studio and "live" performance recording because of overtones that are undesirable in the recording environment. Accordingly, various adhoc means of muting, attenuating and suppressing those undesirable tonal components of the snare drum sound are employed. One desirable, but unavailable, tone variation from the traditional sharp tone of the snare drum is a lower end or "darker" tone, which is not associated with the traditional snare drum. It is difficult to realize the low end or "darker" tone in a snare drum by providing thicker batter-and snare-side drumheads because the ability of the snare wires to vibrationally interact with the snare-side head in response to the impacts on the batter-side head is greatly reduced.